Viola's Dreamworld

Monday, July 23, 2007

0 comments

With reference to the Straits Times article "Malaysia gets tough on human traffickers" published 21 July 2007.

Malaysia has now written a new Bill, namely, the Anti-trafficking in Persons Bill. It is set to become law next month.

Under this act, suspects found guilty will face heavy penalties.

As for me, I was glad to see that such a law has finally been put in place today when it should have been done many years ago.

Let me first explain the term "victims of human trafficking". By this, I refer to people who have been promised jobs such as maids or in factories, but were eventually forced into prostitution by their agents.

The suffering that the victims of human trafficking undergo is pain beyond our wildest imaginations. It does not help that once they are found, instead of being rescued, more often than not, they are prosecuted instead. Even when they were innocent, they were pronounced guilty.

"Activists say that trafficking victims often ended up being jailed for not possessing passports, adding to their woes of being cheated by labour agents and traffickers".

The number of victims stands at around 400. This shows the naive way of thinking these victims often have, prior to their experience. I believe that the root cause of the problem is due to the lack of education. These people were not educated about the dangers and cautions they should have taken, so when they were approached by these unscruptulous agents, they naively believed every word, and so fell into a trap full of suffering.

This new Bill will certainly help the victims of human trafficking. But it will not help solve the problem. There will always be a demand for such workers such as sex slaves. And where there is demand, there has to be supply. Therefore, the number of victims will not simply go down drastically overnight.

To help solve the problem, there is an increased need for better education. It is only through education that these people can learn how to protect themselves and make wise decisions.

However, I applaud Malaysia for its move. Perhaps other countries who have not yet implemented such a law, should start to seriously take this into consideration.

After all, these victims are human too, and they have rights just like the rest of us.

-when are you coming back? ;